When I injured my knee last February, it became apparent that I would not be able to fly to my BIL’s wedding in DC. So…..
… we called Delta Airline and asked if it was possible to get the ticket refunded or something. This was many weeks before the wedding itself.
A Delta employee, over the phone, assured us that there would be no problem at all. Just get one of those “you can’t fly” notes from the doctor, and bring it to the terminal on the day of the flight. A voucher would be issued.
So I got the note from the doctor, and Amanda brought it to the terminal on the day of the flight.
The people at the terminal said that they don’t issue the vouchers, but no problem, just call the airline after the trip and we’d get a voucher.
So we did.
And we did that again.
And again.
The injury was in February. The flight would have been in March. It is now July. And, it is starting to look like we are not going to get that refund or voucher.
I was going to use that to visit my elderly mother in September. It is simply not possible for the four of us to buy tickets for that trip. I wonder which one of us is not going to go?
Delta Airlines. So far, you are worse that Northwest. I didn’t think that was possible.
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They’re not necessarily lying, but the alternative isn’t much better.
More likely, there are multiple levels at which a voucher of some form can be authorized, but at each level they are incentivized not to do it and instead redirect the responsibility elsewhere. Maybe it gets mentioned on their performance review; maybe they have an arbitrary limit imposed by management and work hard to stay under it; maybe a lot of things, but the key is that at each step it is distinctly more worth their while to pass the buck than to provide, you know, customer service…
Yes, they could simply be blowing smoke, but Occam’s Razor suggests they’re just individual souls trapped in a bureaucracy, trying desperately to avoid the price that comes with taking responsibility.
Mystyk is probably right :/
Have you tried using the magic words? No, not “please”, it’s “I’d like to escalate my complaint’. I’ve found that to work remarkably well.
When you are fighting the incentives not to issue a voucher, you have to make yourself worse than the alternatives, nothing is worse than a customer complaint against a phone monkey, so that should rebalance things in your favour.
Sounds like a tough break Laden. But you got a coupla months to make up five Benjamins or so… Tell ya what…
I got a 98 Ford Taurus needs a tranny put in. I’d do it myself but I’m a little tied up rite now and would pay a man a good buck and a quarter cash money so as not to screw up anybody’s unemployment. The car’s spot on cement all nice and level, in the shade till bout noon and besides the tranny, I got jack stands, a creeper and a rolling floor jack. You’ll need to furnish your own hand tools.
Now I know you got a bad wheel on the mend but this is mostly lay down work so it shouldn’t be a problem. I figure it’ll take about a day if a fella starts early and I’m only about five hours from Minny if you drive the speed limit. Lemme know if you’re interested. Aww hell, since it’s you I’ll even kick in a Jackson for gas.
I’ve found that letter written on actual paper in an envelope with a stamp and delivered by the postal service often get the kind of reply that phone calls (and now emails) don’t.
Blogging about and mentioning the blog in the letter is very good too.
Good luck.
Do you have an American equivalent of trading standards or watchdog you could contact? They might be able to advise you how to proceed or start some kind of action against the airline.
A couple of questions for you. Did you get the names of the people you spoke with? Why did you wait until the last minute to show up with the note? The airline may have been more accommodating if you’d shown up early enough that they could have resold the seat. There should have been something in place to let them know ahead of time. Go on up the line of the supervisors. We have a consumer advocacy program here on the radio that helps people with problems like that. You should have one in your area, contact him/her. Good luck.
From the L.A. Times travel blog http://travel.latimes.com/daily-deal-blog/index.php/on-the-spot-too-sick-7213/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DailyDealsLosAngelesTimesTravel+%28Daily+Travel+%26+Deal+Blog%29
I don’t know if we got the names. I was pretty much out of it in a post-surgury haze.
Why did you wait until the last minute to show up with the note? Amanda did as instructed. She was told to bring the note to the terminal before boarding.
The airline may have been more accommodating if you’d shown up early enough that they could have resold the seat.
My ticket was presumably cancelled and resold weeks before the flight when we called. The “note” etc was to get a voucher for a refund.
🙁 I hope you continue to pursue it. There needs to be some sort of industry standard. I mean if I were to take a trip with my mom and she were to die just before the trip, I should hope I could get a refund….
They told you to go to the terminal for the voucher? That seems a little strange to me. I have had to cancel or reschedule a half a dozen flights over the last two years (at least twice with Delta), and never once did I have to go anywhere to do so, everything was handled over the phone and confirmed in emails. I had to pay rebooking fees when they applied, bot not every time.
Perhaps the difference is because you had to physically bring a “doctor’s note”, but still that seems a bit over-reaching.
“The people at the terminal said that they don’t issue the vouchers, but no problem, just call the airline after the trip and we’d get a voucher.” After the trip? Why wait until after the trip? And what trip? Did you still take a flight?
http://www.elliott.org/
Chris Elliott is a travel writer that I read often, and he is usually successful in helping people who write him prod the airlines into getting a refund or voucher.
Try emailing him, or use his website to find a higher-up contact at Delta to prod.
Try this contact info for Delta
Toby Broberg
Director, Customer Care
(404) 773-0305
toby.broberg@delta.com
http://onyoursi.de/wiki/airline/delta-air-lines/
never once did I have to go anywhere to do so, everything was handled over the phone and confirmed in emails. I had to pay rebooking fees when they applied, bot not every time
It would not have been possible to send the “do not fly” medical order over email (easily, in a way they would accept)
Kat, excellent suggestions
I flew back to Shanghai from LA via Tokyo on June 2nd, the flight No. is DL 0283 and DL 0647. I was shocked when I opened my luggage in Shanghai and found out more than US$2400 of merchandise I purchased in USA were missing. The missing merchandize include one GUCCI bag, three COACH bags, and some cosmetics. I sent emails to the related people but there is NOT any feedback till now. I don’t know if they are working on this issue, or they just try to ignore it? It sucks……